The use of force or violence against persons or property in violation of the criminal laws of the United States for purposes of intimidation, coercion, or ransom. Terrorists often use threats to create fear among the public, to try to convince citizens that their government is powerless to prevent terrorism, & to get immediate publicity for their causes.

Acts of Terrorism

Threats of terrorism.

Assasinations.

Kidnappings.

Hijackings.

Bomb Scares.

Bombings

Cyber Attacks

Use of chemical, biological, & nuclear weapons.

High Risk Targets

Military & Civilian government facilities.

International Airports

Large cities

High-profile landmarks

Large public gatherings.

Water & food supplies

Utilities

Corporate centers

Sending explosives or chemical & biological agents through the mail

Public guidelines for terrorist attack

1. Wherever you are, be aware of your surroundings. The very nature of terrorism suggests there may be little or no warning.

2. Take precautions when traveling. Be aware of conspicuous or unusual behavior. Do not accept packages from strangers. Do not leave luggage unattended. Unusual behavior, suspicious packages, & strange devices should be reported to the police or security personnel.

3. Do not be afraid to move or leave if you feel uncomfortable or if something does

not seem right.

4. Learn where emergency exits are located in buildings you frequent. Notice where

exits are when you enter unfamiliar buildings. Plan how to get out of a building,

subway or congested public area or traffic. Note where staircases are located.

Notice heavy or breakable objects that could move, fall or break in an explosion.

5. Assemble a disaster supply kit at home and learn first aid. Separate the supplies

you would take if you had to evacuate quickly, and put them in a backpack or

container, ready to go.

6. Be familiar with different types of fire extinguishers and how to locate them.

Know the location and availability of hard hats in buildings in which you spend a

lot of time.

Public guidelines for explosion

Leave the building as quickly as possible. Do not stop to retrieve personal possessions or

make phone calls. If things are falling around you, get under a sturdy table or desk until they

stop falling. Then leave quickly, watching for weakened floors and stairs and falling debris as

you exit.

If there is a fire:

Stay low to the floor and exit the building as quickly as possible.

Cover your nose and mouth with a wet cloth.

When approaching a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the lower,

middle and upper parts of the door. Never use the palm of your hand or fingers

to test for heat: burning those areas could impair your ability to escape a fire

(i.e., ladders and crawling).

If the door is NOT hot, open slowly and ensure fire and/or smoke is not

Heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first along the ceiling. Stay below

the smoke at all times.

If you are trapped in debris:

Do not light a match.

Do not move about or kick up dust. Cover your mouth with a handkerchief or

clothing.

Rhythmically tap on a pipe or wall so that rescuers can hear where you are. Use

a whistle if one is available. Shout only as a last resort when you hear sounds

and think someone will hear you. Shouting can cause a person to inhale

dangerous amounts of dust.

Chemical Weapons

Chemical warfare agents are poisonous vapors, aerosols, liquids or solids that have toxic effects on people, animals or plants. They can be released by bombs, sprayed from aircraft, boats, or vehicles, or used as a liquid to create a hazard to people and the environment. Some chemical agents may be odorless and tasteless. They can have an immediate effect (a few seconds to a few minutes) or a delayed effect (several hours to several days). While potentially lethal, chemical agents are difficult to deliver in lethal concentrations. Outdoors, the agents often dissipate rapidly. Chemical agents are also difficult to produce.

Four types of chemical agents

Lung-damaging (pulmonary) agents: such as phosgene Cyanide, Vesicants or

blister agents such as mustard

Nerve agents: such as GA (tabun), GB (sarin), GD (soman), GF, and VX

Incapacitating agents: such as BZ

Riot-control agents: (similar to MACE)

Biological weapons

Biological agents are organisms or toxins that can kill or incapacitate people, livestock and crops. The three basic groups of biological agents which would likely be used as weapons are bacteria, viruses, and toxins.

Most biological agents are difficult to grow and maintain. Many break down quickly when exposed to sunlight and other environmental factors, while others such as anthrax spores are

very long lived. They can be dispersed by spraying them in the air, or infecting animals which carry the disease to humans as well through food and water contamination.

Person-to-person spread of a few infectious agents is also possible. Humans have been the source of infection for smallpox, plague, and the Lassa viruses.

Three groups of Biological weapons

Bacteria: Bacteria are small free-living organisms that reproduce by simple division and are easy to grow. The diseases they produce often respond to treatment with antibiotics.

Viruses: Viruses are organisms which require living cells in which to reproduce and are intimately dependent upon the body they infect. Viruses produce diseases which generally do not respond to antibiotics. However, antiviral drugs are sometimes effective.

Toxins: Toxins are poisonous substances found in, and extracted from, living plants, animals, or microorganisms; some toxins can be produced or altered by chemical means. Some toxins can be treated with specific antitoxins and selected drugs.

How are biological weapons dispersed?

Aerosols: Biological agents are dispersed into the air, forming a fine mist that may drift for miles. Inhaling the agent may cause disease in people or animals.

Animals: Some diseases are spread by insects and animals, such as fleas, mice, flies, and mosquitoes. Deliberately spreading diseases through livestock is also referred to as agroterrorism.

Food and water contamination: Some pathogenic organisms and toxins may

persist in food and water supplies. Most microbes can be killed, and toxins deactivated, by cooking food and boiling water.

Anthrax

Anthrax spores formulated as a white powder were mailed to individuals in the government and media in the fall of 2001. Postal sorting machines and the opening of letters dispersed the spores as aerosols. Several deaths resulted. The effect was to disrupt mail service and to cause a widespread fear of handling delivered mail among the public.

Public guidelines PREPARING for a chemical or biological attack

Assemble a disaster supply kit and be sure to include:

Battery-powered commercial radio with extra batteries

Non-perishable food and drinking water

Roll of duct tape and scissors

Plastic for doors, windows and vents for the room in which you will shelter in place-this should be an internal room where you can block out air that may contain hazardous chemical or biological agents. To save critical time during

an emergency, sheeting should be pre-measured and cut for each opening

First aid kit

Sanitation supplies including soap, water and bleach

Public guidelines DURING a chemical or biological attack

1. Listen to your radio for instructions from authorities such as whether to remain

inside or to evacuate.

2. If you are instructed to remain in your home, the building where you are, or other

shelter during a chemical or biological attack:

Turn off all ventilation, including furnaces, air conditioners, vents and fans.

Seek shelter in an internal room, preferably one without windows, underground if possible. Seal the room with duct tape and plastic sheeting. Ten square feet of floor space per person will provide sufficient air to prevent carbon dioxide

build-up for up to five hours.

Remain in protected areas where toxic vapors are reduced or eliminated, and be sure to take your battery-operated radio with you.

3. If you are caught in an unprotected area, you should:

Attempt to get up-wind of the contaminated area.

Attempt to find shelter as quickly as possible.

Listen to your radio for official instructions.

Public guidelines AFTER a CHEMICAL attack

Immediate symptoms of exposure to chemical agents may include blurred vision, eye

irritation, difficulty breathing and nausea. A person affected by a chemical or biological agent requires immediate attention by professional medical personnel. If medical help is not immediately available, decontaminate yourself and assist in decontaminating others. Decontamination is needed within minutes of exposure to minimize health consequences (However, you should not leave the safety of a shelter to go outdoors to help others until authorities announce it is safe to do so.)

1. Use extreme caution when helping others who have been exposed to chemical agents. Contaminated clothing normally removed over the head should be cut off to avoid contact with the eyes, nose, and mouth. Put into a plastic bag if possible. Decontaminate hands using soap and water. Remove eyeglasses or contact lenses. Put glasses in a pan of household bleach to decontaminate.

2. Remove all items in contact with the body.

3. Flush eyes with lots of water.

4. Gently wash face and hair with soap and water; then thoroughly rinse with water.

5. Decontaminate other body areas likely to have been contaminated. Blot (do not swab or scrape) with a cloth soaked in soapy water and rinse with clear water.

6. Change into uncontaminated clothes. Clothing stored in drawers or closets is likely to be uncontaminated.

7. If possible, proceed to a medical facility for screening.

Public guidelines AFTER a BIOLOGICAL attack

In many biological attacks, people will not know they have been exposed to an agent. In such situations, the first evidence of an attack may be when you notice symptoms of the disease caused by an agent exposure, and you should seek immediate medical attention for treatment. In some situations, like the anthrax letters sent in 2001, people may be alerted to a potential exposure. If this is the case, pay close attention to all official warnings and instructions on how to proceed. The delivery of medical services for a biological event may be handled differently to respond to increased demand. Again, it will be important for you to pay attention to official instructions via radio, television, and emergency alert systems.

If your skin or clothing comes in contact with a visible, potentially infectious substance, you should remove and bag your clothes and personal items and wash yourself with warm soapy water immediately. Put on clean clothes and seek medical assistance.

Effects of nuclear and radiological attacks

Blinding light

Intense heat (thermal radiation)

Initial nuclear radiation

Blast

Fires started by heat pulse

Secondary fires caused by the destruction

They also produce radioactive particles called fallout that can be carried by wind for hundreds of miles.

Examples of nuclear & radiological attack

Terrorist use of a radiological dispersion device (RDD)—often called "dirty nuke" or "dirty bomb"—is considered far more likely than use of a nuclear device.

These radiological weapons are a combination of conventional explosives and radioactive

material designed to scatter dangerous and sub-lethal amounts of radioactive material over a general area. Such radiological weapons appeal to terrorists because they require very little technical knowledge to build and deploy compared to that of a nuclear device. Also, these radioactive materials, used widely in medicine, agriculture, industry and research, are much more readily available and easy to obtain compared to weapons grade uranium or plutonium.

Terrorist use of a nuclear device would probably be limited to a single smaller "suitcase" weapon. The strength of such a weapon would be in the range of the bombs used during World War II. The nature of the effects would be the same as a weapon delivered by an inter-continental missile, but the area and severity of the effects would be significantly more limited.

Potential targets of a nuclear & radiological attack

Strategic missile sites & military bases

Centers of government such as Washington DC, & state capitals

Important transportation & communication centers

Manufacturing, industrial, technology & financial centers

Petroleum refineries, electrical power plants & chemical plants

Major ports & airfields

Two types of Nuclear & radiological Shelters

Blast : offer some protection against blast pressure, initial radiation, heat & fire, but even a blast shelter could not withstand a direct hit from a nuclear detonation.

Fallout : do not need to be specifically constructed for that purpose. They can be any protected space, provided that the walls & roof are thick enough to absorb the radiation given off by fallout particles.

Remember that any protection, however temporary, is better than none at all, and the more shielding, distance and time available, the better.

Three protective factors of a fallout shelter

Shielding : The heavier, dense materials-thick walls, concrete, bricks, books and earth-between you and the fallout particles, the better.

Distance : The more distance between you and the fallout particles, the better. An underground area, such as a home or office building basement, offers more protection than the first floor of a building. A floor near the middle of a high-rise may be better, depending on what is nearby at that level on which significant fallout particles would collect. Flat roofs collect fallout particles so the top floor is not a good choice, nor is a floor adjacent to a neighboring flat

roof.

Time : Fallout radiation loses its intensity fairly rapidly. In time, you will be able to leave the fallout shelter. Radioactive fallout poses the greatest threat to people during the first two weeks, by which time it has declined to about 1% of its initial radiation level.

Electromagnetic pulse

In addition to other effects, a nuclear weapon detonated in or above the earth's atmosphere can create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a high-density electrical field. EMP acts like a stroke of lightning but is stronger, faster and briefer. EMP can seriously damage electronic devices connected to power sources or antennas. This includes communication systems, computers, electrical appliances, and automobile or aircraft ignition systems. The damage could range from a minor interruption to actual burnout of components. Most electronic equipment within 1,000 miles of a high-altitude nuclear detonation could be affected. Battery powered radios with short antennas generally would not be affected. Although EMP is unlikely to harm most people, it could harm those with pacemakers or other implanted electronic devices.

Public guidelines PREPARING for nuclear or radiological attack

1. Learn the warning signals and all sources of warning used in your community. Make sure you know what the signals are, what they mean, how they will be used, and what you should do if you hear them.

2. Assemble and maintain a disaster supply kit with food, water, medications, fuel and personal items adequate for up to two weeks-the more the better.

3. Find out what public buildings in your community may have been designated as

fallout shelters. It may have been years ago, but start there, and learn which buildings are still in use and could be designated as shelters again.

Call your local emergency management office.

Look for yellow and black fallout shelter signs on public buildings. Note: With the end of the Cold War, many of the signs have been removed from the buildings previously designated.

If no noticeable or official designations have been made, make your own list of potential shelters near your home, workplace and school: basements, or the windowless center area of middle floors in high-rise buildings, as well as

subways and tunnels.

Give your household clear instructions about where fallout shelters are located and what actions to take in case of attack.

4. If you live in an apartment building or high-rise, talk to the manager about the

safest place in the building for sheltering, and about providing for building occupants until it is safe to go out.

5. There are few public shelters in many suburban and rural areas. If you are considering building a fallout shelter at home, keep the following in mind.

A basement, or any underground area, is the best place to shelter from fallout. Often, few major changes are needed, especially if the structure has two or more stories and its basement-or one corner of it-is below ground.

Fallout shelters can be used for storage during non-emergency periods, but only store things there that can be very quickly removed. (When they are removed, dense, heavy items may be used to add to the shielding.)

All the items you will need for your stay need not be stocked inside the shelter itself but can be stored elsewhere, as long as you can move them quickly to the shelter.

6. Learn about your community's evacuation plans. Such plans may include evacuation routes, relocation sites, how the public will be notified and transportation options for people who do not own cars and those who have special needs.

7. Acquire other emergency preparedness booklets that you may need.

Public instructions DURING a nuclear or radiological attack

1. Do not look at the flash or fireball-it can blind you.

2. If you hear an attack warning:

Take cover as quickly as you can, below ground if, and stay there unless instructed to do otherwise.

If you are caught outside, unable to get inside immediately, take cover behind anything that might offer protection. Lie flat on the ground and cover your head.

If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit.

Protect yourself from radioactive fallout. If you are close enough to see the brilliant flash of a nuclear explosion, the fallout will arrive in about 20 minutes. Take shelter, even if you are many miles from ground zero-radioactive fallout can be carried by the winds for hundreds of miles. Remember the three protective factors: shielding, distance and time.

Public instructions AFTER a nuclear or radiological attack

In a public or home shelter:

1. Do not leave the shelter until officials say it is safe. Follow their instructions when leaving.

2. If in a fallout shelter, stay in your shelter until local authorities tell you it is permissible or advisable to leave. The length of your stay can range from a day or two to four weeks.

Contamination from a radiological dispersion device could affect a wide area, depending on the amount of conventional explosives used, the quantity of radioactive material and atmospheric conditions.

A "suitcase" terrorist nuclear device detonated at or near ground level would produce heavy fallout from the dirt and debris sucked up into the mushroom cloud.

A missile-delivered nuclear weapon from a hostile nation would probably cause an explosion many times more powerful than a suitcase bomb, and provide a greater cloud of radioactive fallout.

The decay rate of the radioactive fallout would be the same, making it necessary for those in the areas with highest radiation levels to remain in shelter for up to a month.

The heaviest fallout would be limited to the area at or downwind from the explosion, and 80% of the fallout would occur during the first 24 hours.

Because of these facts and the very limited number of weapons terrorists could detonate, most of the country would not be affected by fallout.

People in most of the areas that would be affected could be allowed to come out of shelter and, if necessary, evacuate to unaffected areas within a few days.

3. Although it may be difficult, make every effort to maintain sanitary conditions in

your shelter space.

4. Water and food may be scarce. Use them prudently but do not impose severe rationing, especially for children, the ill or elderly.

5. Cooperate with shelter managers. Living with many people in confined space can be difficult and unpleasant.

Policy for leaving infants

Individuals are able to leave an infant with employees of authorized facilities, including fire

stations. The stipulations are that the infant be left in the physical custody of an employee, be

no more than 30 days old, and show no signs of abuse.

Procedure for leaving infants

1. If an infant is left at a station, it must be left in the physical custody of an

employee and may not be abandoned at the door.

2. It must be ascertained that the infant is of the right age (30 days or younger)

and there is no evidence of abuse. The individual leaving the infant is not

required to provide any identifying information about the infant or themselves.

However, if possible, the individual will be given four documents from the

Department of Human Services. These four documents should be place

together for immediate distribution to the parent. These four documents are:

a. “Dear Birth Parent” letter

b. “Medical and Genetic History” form

c. “Contact Numbers for Facilities” sheet

d. “A Safe Place for Newborns” pamphlet

The individual leaving the infant is not required to complete the “Medical and

Genetic History” form at that time, but may choose to return this information at

a later date. These documents are given to the individual in case they choose to

contact the Child Welfare Offices at a later date and time.

3. The Duty Chief must be notified by the receiving company immediately.

4. The State Office for Services to Children and Families must be notified

immediately that an infant has been left at a station.

5. A Patient Care Report form should be completed with as much information ad

possible. The individual leaving the infant is not required to give an

identifying information regarding themselves or the infant. However,

employees should gather as much information as possible including: birth date,